NerdNews

Reflection AI, a startup founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, has raised $2 billion to position itself as an open source alternative to closed frontier labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, and a Western equivalent to Chinese AI firms like DeepSeek. The company plans to release a frontier language model next year and has recruited top talent from DeepMind and OpenAI.

Intel has announced a new processor, codenamed Panther Lake, which is the first chip built using its 18A semiconductor process. The processor is expected to begin shipping later this year and is being produced at Intel's Chandler, Arizona, Fab 52 facility. This marks a significant milestone for the company, which has been working to refocus on its core businesses and restore its engineering-first culture under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

Figma partners with Google to integrate Gemini AI models into its design platform, aiming to improve workflows and efficiency for its 13 million monthly active users. The partnership brings Gemini 2.5 Flash, Gemini 2.0, and Imagen 4 to Figma's toolset, enabling AI-powered image editing and generation capabilities.

Google launched Gemini Enterprise, a comprehensive AI platform for businesses, allowing companies to build and deploy their own AI assistants. The platform includes Google's Gemini AI models, pre-built agents, and a central governance framework. Pricing starts at $30 per seat per month for the standard edition and $21 per seat per month for the business edition.

Meta will move React, React Native, and JSX to a new React Foundation under the Linux Foundation to address vendor dominance fears. The foundation will have seven corporate members, including Amazon and Microsoft, and will maintain React's infrastructure and trademarks. This move aims to provide independent technical governance and unite the fractured React ecosystem.

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that measure user experience, focusing on loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Introduced by Google in 2020, they aim to provide a unified guidance for quality signals essential to delivering a great user experience on the web. The metrics include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which have been widely adopted and have driven significant improvements in web performance across the board.

Google is in a court battle with the DOJ over search remedies that could impact its AI expansion. The company wants to bundle its Gemini AI app with other Google apps like YouTube and Maps, but the DOJ is concerned this could give Google leverage to edge out rivals.

Pure Storage executives discuss the importance of AI inference in production phases, highlighting the need for storage to respond to capacity needs and optimize data management. They emphasize the use of technologies like vector databases, RAG pipelines, and co-pilot capabilities to connect models to data and enable agile AI.

Uber's CPO and Nuro's co-founder discuss AI-driven mobility at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, exploring predictive models, computer vision, and autonomous transportation

Terraform secrets management best practices include using secrets managers, variables, and ephemeral resources to securely manage sensitive data. Never hardcode secrets, secure your Terraform state, and mark sensitive outputs to prevent accidental exposure.

Qualcomm has acquired Arduino, a maker of microcontrollers and single-board computers, to enhance its edge computing capabilities. The acquisition introduces the UNO Q, a new Arduino product based on Qualcomm's Dragonwing chip, featuring a CPU, GPU, and MCU. The move aims to empower developers with access to Qualcomm's edge technologies and products, while Arduino will retain its independence.

Datacurve, a Y Combinator graduate, has raised $15 million in Series A funding to take on Scale AI in the high-quality data collection space. The company uses a 'bounty hunter' system to attract skilled software engineers to complete hard-to-source datasets, paying over $1 million in bounties so far. With the new funding, Datacurve aims to expand its infrastructure for post-training data collection and attract more competent people to its platform.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into Tesla's Full Self-Driving software after receiving reports of vehicles running red lights or crossing into wrong lanes. The probe has identified over 50 reports of these kinds of violations, including four that led to injuries.

DoorDash is partnering with Serve Robotics to use their sidewalk robots for deliveries in Los Angeles. This partnership is part of DoorDash's plan to become a platform for multimodal deliveries. DoorDash also unveiled its own autonomous delivery bot, Dot, which can traverse roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks.

SoftBank Group has acquired ABB's robotics business for $5.4 billion, expanding its portfolio in 'physical AI'. The deal, subject to regulatory approval, will see ABB carve out its robotics division into a new holding company before transferring ownership to SoftBank. This move is part of SoftBank's pursuit of 'artificial super intelligence' and will unite world-class technology and talent under its shared vision.

The PureRAT attack chain starts with a phishing email containing a malicious ZIP archive, which leads to the deployment of a full-featured remote access trojan (RAT). The chain involves multiple stages, including DLL sideloading, Python loaders, and .NET executables, with the final payload being the PureRAT malware. The attack demonstrates a clear progression from simple phishing to complex defense evasion and credential theft techniques.

SonicWall has admitted that all customers who used its cloud backup service were affected by a cybersecurity incident, contradicting earlier claims that only 5% of users were impacted. The breach allowed attackers to access configuration backup files, including firewall settings and network configurations.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a probe into 2.88 million Tesla electric vehicles equipped with the company's 'Full Self-Driving' (FSD) system, citing over 50 reports of traffic-safety violations and numerous crashes. The agency will conduct a preliminary evaluation to determine if the vehicles pose a risk to public safety.

India has launched a pilot to enable consumers to shop and pay directly through AI chatbots, with OpenAI's ChatGPT leading the rollout and integrations with Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude in development. The experience is built on UPI Reserve Pay and UPI Circle, allowing payments to be completed directly within ChatGPT without switching to external apps or websites.

OpenAI has expanded its affordable ChatGPT Go plan to 16 new countries in Asia, offering higher daily limits for messages, image generation, and file uploads. The plan costs under $5 and is seen as a key step towards achieving profitability while expanding OpenAI's global user base.